(Mt. Olympus)

(Prologue: The Punishment)

(Zeus and Hermes)

I gazed out the window from my throne one afternoon in early summer. I was bored and had nothing to do. Mt. Olympus stretched out before me tucked away in its cloudy embrace atop of New York City.

My wife, Hera, entered the room. She said", You know, Zeus, if you are bored, go and do something."

I turned to her in a half disinterested manner and asked, "Like what?"

Hera's mouth twisted up at the corner, "You should entertain yourself."

"Why would I do that?" I asked her. This made no sense to me.

"For amusement." Hera clarified herself. Her tall frame cocooned in her white made quite an impact on anyone who saw her.

She, like several others often thought I did not have anything that resembled the need to entertain or be entertained. In other words, I had no sense of humor or understood the concept of it.

As if reading my mind, she said out loud, "You should get a sense of humor, like Poseidon." She suggested, referring to my brother. "He would not be bored."

Saying this casually, she went on her way out of the area.

I had no time to ponder what she had told me because just then, any thoughts I was having were interrupted by a distant and thunderous sound.

I decided I would deal with her departing words later as I heard a loud boom and suddenly, the quiet of a second ago vanished completely to be replaced by chaos!

The lord of Time, Kronos, my father, erupted with his army in Central Park, through the door of Orpheus, a passageway down to my other brother, Hades's, kingdom to engage in his favorite pastime of always trying to be one up on him.

"Hades!" I bellowed, my voice booming through the air.

He appeared in front of me in that instant.

"Why?!" I demanded in a heated voice. "Why did you allow Father's army through?!"

He looked confused and asked if I had gotten his message to block the door.

A message? This was the first I'd heard of it.

I apologized for the accusation though as usual, I harbored no regret about accusing him. We were forever in squabbles.

He bowed and departed without another word. I was pretty sure he would take a turn at me soon.

I summoned Hermes in front of me. Hermes was talking to one of his snakes when he came before me.

I asked him quite plainly if Hades had given him a message to be given to me.

"Oh, this one?" Hermes, suited as always as if ready to take off at second's notice(which of course, he was) suddenly asked me and pulled out a black scroll from the little bag at his side.

He passed it to me and I read it. It was just as Hades had said it would be; it was telling me to block the door of Orpheus today. But, the date on the message was two days ago.

"Why did you give this to me before now?!" I thundered angrily and lighting flashed and thunder boomed all around!

Hermes tried not to flinch, but I was not fooled. He had become afraid.

"Sorry, father." He was quick to tell me. "I was busy the past two days and meant to get it to you."

"Doing what?!" I wanted to know.

"Answering messages." He answered truthfully. His snakes curled up on his caduceus that he held in his hand, obviously rattled by me as well.

"Your punishment for not getting me this all important letter is to judge…" I thought for a second to come up with something I felt would be severe enough and let make my anger make the decision.

Then, I remembered Hera's departing words to me from a few moments ago. I had all but forgotten it until now. Truthfully, it didn't seem really severe on first thought. But, since she had told me to find a sense of humor and to entertain myself, I felt this was a just decision to hand out to my son.

I began again to speak and announced, "Hermes, I will let you go this time. If you fail to give me another message, I will come up with something very severe!" I assured him sternly. "This time, you are to go judge Camp Half Blood's Prank War!"

I had obviously confused him. For a moment, he didn't seem to be able to respond at all.

Finally, finding his voice, he asked, "What Prank War/? What's that, father?"

I told him quite seriously that since his mother had told me to get a sense of humor, I was going to let Dionysus and Chiron host the Prank War. But, since you've gotten yourself in trouble with me, you shall take Chiron's place. You will go there tonight for one week. You will still have to travel while there. And stay out of the sky. Do you understand?"

He only bowed before me before leaving.

My only thoughts in that moment were to tell Chiron that Hermes would be taking his place as my decision and to tell Hera what I had done.

I used the little round golden drachma coin and contacted. Making a rainbow, I prayed to the Goddess Iris of Rainbows and tossed the drachma into its spectrum of colors.

"Camp Half Blood" I requested.

The centaur Chiron, the activities director of Camp Half Blood's face appeared before me in that instant. His scraggly beard was unmistakable, his brownish black hair curly and circling his head strong strands all around.

I called out to Chiron.

He turned with wild eyes and cried out in disbelief! He bowed and murmured a few blessings, then asked me what I was 'IM'ing about to him.

I told him what I told Hermes. He nodded and I knew he had rushed off to tell another son of mine, Dionysus.

I cut the connection and rushed off to find Hera. This was going to be a great week.